Method and apparatus for distributed compressed sensing

1. A method for approximating a plurality of digital signals or images using compressed sensing, comprising the steps of:

in a scheme where a common component x c of said plurality of digital signals or images is represented as a vector with m entries, making a measurement y c , where y c comprises a vector with only n i entries, where n i is less than m; and

wherein in said scheme an innovative component x i of each of said plurality of digital signals is represented as a vector with m entries each, further comprising the step of:

making a measurement y i for each of said digital signals, where y i comprises a vector with only n i entries, where n i is less than m.

2. A method for approximating a plurality of digital signals or images using compressed sensing according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of:

from each said innovation components y i , producing an approximate reconstruction of each m-vector x i using said common component y c and said innovative component y i .

3. A method for approximating a plurality of digital signals or images using compressed sensing, comprising the steps of:

estimating a common component of said plurality of digital signals;

estimating measurements generated by innovations of each of said plurality of digital signals;

constructing approximations of said innovations of each of said plurality of digital signals; and

obtaining an estimate of at least one signal from said plurality of digital signals as the sum of said estimate of said common component and estimates of at least one innovation component of said at least one signal.

4. A method for approximating a plurality of digital signals or images using compressed sensing, comprising the steps of:

in a scheme where an innovative component x i of each of said plurality of digital signals is represented as a vector with m entries each, further comprising the step of:

making a measurement y i for each of said digital signals, where y i comprises a vector with only n i entries, where n i is less than m.

5. An apparatus for joint measurement of a plurality of signals comprising:

means for measuring a plurality of correlated signals, said measuring means encoding each signal independently by projecting each said signal onto another incoherent basis;

means for transmitting each said encoded signal from said means for measuring to a signal processor; and

means for recovering said plurality of correlated signals based upon a correlation of said signals.

6. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said means for measuring comprises a plurality of sensors in any modality.

7. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said plurality of sensors comprise at least one selected from the group of: cameras, acoustic and temperature sensors.

8. An apparatus according to claim 5 wherein said means for measuring measures said plurality of signals using an incoherent measurement matrix.

9. An apparatus for joint measurement of a plurality of signals comprising:

means for measuring a plurality of correlated signals, said measuring means encoding each signal independently by projecting each said signal onto another incoherent basis;

means for transmitting each said encoded signal from said means for measuring to a signal processor; and

means for recovering said plurality of correlated signals based upon a correlation of the sparse representations of said signals.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9 wherein said means for measuring comprises a plurality of sensors in any modality.

11. An apparatus according to claim 9 wherein said plurality of sensors comprise at least one selected from the group of: cameras, acoustic and temperature sensors.

12. An apparatus according to claim 9 wherein said means for measuring measures said plurality of signals using an incoherent measurement matrix.